Three Queensland playwrights are vying for the Queensland Premier’s Drama Award 2018-19, with Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announcing the finalists on January 30th 2018.

Hannah Belanszky

Hannah Belanszky, David Megarrity and Anna Yen have been selected from the field of 92 entries, with the winner to receive a mainstage production of their play in Queensland Theatre’s (QT) 2019 Season.

Since the award was launched in 2002, Queensland Theatre has developed 28 new Australian plays, employing more than 200 actors, writers and directors.

BMEG’s Hannah Belanszky is an actor, writer and theatre-maker based in Brisbane. Hannah was the Young Playwright-In-Residence at Playlab in 2017, mentored by Kathryn Marquet. She also wrote, directed and performed in her cabaret theatre piece, The Wives of Wolfgang (Wonderland Festival, Brisbane Powerhouse). Her performance experience includes roles in Harrow (ABC Studios), Julius Caesar (4MBS) and The Roasting (Short and Sweet Theatre Festival).

Her entry A Cup of Tea is set in a rural Australian town by a river, where Joan, a young twenty something, is visiting her Indigenous father, Mick, for the first time. Pale-skinned and raised by her non-Indigenous mother, Joan knows little of her Indigenous heritage. Mick, fighting his own demons has developed an obsession with drinking tea since giving up alcohol. Joan finds refuge in Pattie, Mick’s high school sweetheart, who talks of birds…the wind… and the ‘Old People’. As a big storm brews, Joan becomes increasingly drawn to the river and begins to hear birds calling her name. A Cup of Tea is a story of self-discovery and belonging. It explores how a connection with your heritage can be so much more than skin deep.